One Liner: Local rapper with a great flow and an excellent attitude about growing rap in the city.
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but rap and hip hop Home: Austin Poster Position: not on the poster Weekend Two Only. Saturday.
Thoughts: When I read the man's name on the poster, I literally said out loud "this'll be terrible." It is better than expected, even if his rap name is lame. And on top of that, he seems to be a legitimately good dude trying to make the Austin hip hop scene better.
"If you weren't paying attention, you might not grasp the degree of difficulty in J Soulja's sacrificial juggling act, striving to progress his own rap career while also carving out opportunities for his peers in a town still lacking a solid hip-hop infrastructure. The impassioned creative's monthly Pre-Roll open mic showcase at Flamingo Cantina has been running since July. The Smoke Out, his main concert series that's become his signature as a promoter, finally makes its return on March 19 as an official South by Southwest 2022 showcase. His 32-artist, March Madness-style, single elimination contest: the Smoke Out ATX Tournament – culminating in a local hip-hop act getting a SXSW slot – reemerges next month, COVID permitting. And Six Square, an organization working to preserve the Eastside's cultural legacy, made him its director of cultural and artistic liberation last year."
But check out the other wild story in this Chronicle piece. He was a janitor at some Austin Community College campuses, working all day and then heading to the studio at night, while raising a son on his own. And a friend suggested that he apply to be a Swisher Sweets ambassador. He got the spot and received a big check and a flight out to L.A. he then used the funds he got from that relationship to start his local showcases and try to benefit the rap community overall. Very cool. He's also brash, saying that he can outrap anyone, because he has put in his 10,000 hours.
Good number of albums - 2018's IIISzn, 2019's Sumthin' Light, 2020's From the Soul, 2020's This Ain't Shxt, 2021's Soulja Szn, and 2021's More Than Nothing. Not much in the way of Spotify streams, but he honestly has a really good flow. Top track is "ROOF" from this newest album.
First off, check that beat that has some originality and musicianship. Not just a straight free track from a website, that has some funk sample flavor. "NEED MINE" kind of has J Cole vibes. "Rare Form" has some ominous darkness to it. All of his top ten songs are from that most recent disc (even when eight of the ten have no recorded stream numbers), but 2019's Sumthin' Light has a track with 2k streams called "CC," so I'll chow you that one. This video, inexplicably, claimed to have zero views before I just fired it up and gave it 1 view. Which is really odd. Even the person who uploaded it didn't watch one time to make sure it loaded?
I'm digging this guy. I still think his rapper name is jenky, but he takes solid beats and rolls over the top of them. I kept listening to these tunes over the weekend long after I needed to, and while he's not the next coming of Biggie or anything, he's nice. Sure as hell better than the Lil Durk guy who somehow is on the top of the poster.
One Liner: The elementary school choir from the campus closest to Zilker Park.
Wikipedia Genre: Awesomeness (and no Wikipedia) Home: Austin Poster Position: Not on the poster Both Weekends. Saturday.
Thoughts: Like School of Rock, I'm pretty much just going to give you my review from last year. Dammit. I don't think we even had an elementary school choir when I was a kid, they were too busy bussing us all over town and spending all of their money on crazy ass bus drivers and diesel instead of innovative music programs and fancy microphones with pop filters. But this is freaking so awesome. And its actually good. I've just let YouTube autoplay all morning despite being done with this post, because the tunes are legitimately enjoyable. I just read an interview with the choir director, Gavin Tabone, and I couldn't love his attitude more. Oh, and in case you aren't going to read the article, just know that he mentions that he has between 150 and 200 kids involved in the choir program at an elementary school with about 375 kids. That is amazing. And he's helping these kids find a real, deep love for music, something that will make them better people for the rest of their lives. Because complete fanatics about music, like people who would write about 100+ bands in their spare time, are the best kind of people. ;) Before I get into a new batch of videos, here are the past few years' reviews.
2017's Review has a bunch of awesome Grateful Dead songs. I loved it. I am going to keep those videos in here, down below, because they are quite frankly quite a bit stronger than the two new ones I found.
Actually, it looks like they are still in a Grateful Dead phase. One of their most recent videos is "Goin Down the Road Feelin Bad/I Know You Rider."
Dig it. I feel bad that they have to do those weird hand motions when they don't sing, but otherwise that sounds dope. And here is "(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman." Why was I not allowed to be born in 2009?
Let's go back to last year and the awesome Dead stuff (and because I'm lazy, this commentary is all the same): "Ripple" is a jam anyway, and these kids do it up right.
I love that song anyway, but hearing a roomful of kids throwing down serious harmonies? Aw man. 51k views of that video (and I just added eight to the count). "Cassidy" is also pretty solid, as is "Scarlet Begonias." One more, let's get the whole choir involved. Here is "Touch of Grey."
SOMEONE BUILD ME A DAMN TIME MACHINE RIGHT NOW SO I CAN TELL MY PARENTS TO MOVE ME TO BARTON HILLS TO SING IN THIS CHOIR AND THEN JOIN SCHOOL OF ROCK SO THAT I COULD BE BIGGER THAN THE BEATLES TODAY!!!
Really cool deal, first that this choir director takes the time to make this a truly cool thing, and second that the ACL folks sign them up to come and perform on a real deal stage at the Festival. Good stuff all around. Hooray for humanity!
One Liner: Atlanta rapper and crooner who I like despite my pre-conceptions
Wikipedia Genre: R&B, hip hop Home: Atlanta Poster Position: brand new addition to the lineup! Weekend One Only. Sunday.
Thoughts: I have literally never understood how to say the name of this gentleman. I know that makes me an old person, but in my mind it was pronounced like "slack," which makes zero sense at all. So then my brain would say "sixlack," like a super-powerful version of Ex-Lax. Which also makes no sense. Now I see that it is just said as "black," which is deeply disappointing. It's like a guy who tricked the DMV into issuing him a license plate that says P3NIS because he thought it would be hilarious and now he's divorced and into My Little Pony cosplay.
Real name is Ricardo Valdez Valentine Jr. Which is a dope name. he was born in Baltimore but raised in Atlanta, where he started battle rapping when he was in middle school. He dropped out of Valdosta State University to sign with Flo Rida's label and try his hand at full time music. he apparently slept in the studio or on the street while he worked on his music, but before releasing anything with that label he left to join the Spillage Village, which has the Earthgang guys and JID (who I dig).
Several of this guy's top tracks are with someone else - Khalid, Normani, something called Lil Tjay, J. Cole - so it is honestly not that easy to know what he sounds like on those, because I can't tell the difference between Lil TJay and this guy when they rap. So I skipped the top tracks and went straight to the albums.
2016's FREE 6LACK was his first album, and I'm surprisingly kind of in to it. I don't know why I was instantly geared up to thing this was going to be bad, but I've enjoyed some of these tracks. Three have over 100 million streams, but one of them is the standout for sure, "PRBLMS" with 384 million streams, which went platinum after release.
Beat is basic, but it has an ominous feel to it that matches well to the laconic flow that he is throwing on there. And also, lyrically, I dig it. No bragging about his cars and money, just telling the ladyfriend why she's a pain in his ass. It's like Ice T's "99 Problems," but instead of a long list, he's just concentrating on a few of them and slowly considering them while he eats Xanax. I definitely prefer the straight raps over the R&B stuff, which are anodyne and unremarkable part of this hour long album, but I'm actually enjoying the album overall.
Then in 2018 he released East Atlanta Love Letter, which again boasts three songs with over a hundred million streams, but then one bigger hit. This one features J Cole. "Pretty Little Fears, with 316.9 million streams.
I feel guilty for years of J Cole slander. I blame Shea Serrano. Cole has some bars, and I like the halting way that he does this cameo within the beat, and his lyrics are lovely. Pretty tune overall. He also goes in to some AutoTune on here, which is disappointing. C'mon man. You have a fine voice. But I definitely liked the first album more. And since that album, four stinkin' years ago, nothing but a small EP and an album of weird ass Christmas songs. Feels like a weird time to take a break? We'll do one more with his newest single, to let you get a feel for that one. "Rent Free," released in 2021 and now with 13.2 million streams.
By the way, each time I see it written, my brain still says his name is slack. I wish that he could find better beats, honestly. None of these are that interesting, but his lyrics are usually enjoyable and his flow sounds good. I wish he'd have a good, hard, memorable beat that made me get hype.
One Liner: Austin purveyor of psychedelia cumbia supreme
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but cumbia? Home: Austin Poster Position: brand new addition to the lineup! Weekend Two Only. Saturday.
Thoughts: "Como Las Movies is an indie-cumbia-pop project from Austin led by chief songwriter Nelson Valente Aguilar. An Austinite by way of border town McAllen, Texas, Aguilar combines his pan-Latin and pop musical influences into a duality that has been endearingly referred to as the Nuevo Wave sound." One of his bandmates looks like Jon Hamm in a wig. Not much that I can easily find that is written about them, just blurbs like the one I copied above. I did find a Chronicle article in which he cops to being a Fifth Grade teacher. Which would be really hard! But otherwise the article is kind of an uninteresting piece about how he is coping with COVID lockdowns.
I was going to dismiss this - I'm not much for cumbias and can't speak Spanish, but this is kinda weird stuff that bends the traditional sound into a fun angle. "Cumbia De Los Monjes" has some trippy ass synth lines that kick it up a notch. After I am done listening to it, it will have 7,777 streams - MAGIC! - and I win a prize.
737 views of that video, I need to watch it 40 times so that all versions of the song are on all 7s! Psych cumbia! Their top track was chosen for a Spotify playlist, so now it has 83k streams. the confusingly named "?Ypqsp?" This is a live version made for the Tiny Desk Concert contest, but you'll catch the flavor. See be-wigged Jon Hamm back there on the bass?
One Liner: Classic 80's band with a surprisingly short lifespan
Wikipedia Genre: New wave, pop, soul, blue-eyed soul, dance-rock, sophisti-pop (that is a new one!) Home: London Poster Position: 7 Weekend Two Only. Saturday.
Thoughts: The addition of this band made me think about who are the bands that I want to see brought out of the 80's dust bin and shoved back up onstage for me to enjoy. I know you wanted to hear about Culture Club, and I'll get to that, but first let's remember some things that would be fun to see in future years to bring up some heavy nostalgia points.
We have already enjoyed some 80's groups: Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Lionel Richie, The Replacements, Dwight Yoakum, David Byrne (although a real Talking Heads show would have been more better). And likely more that I am not remembering. You could probably lump LL Cool J in there. AND, those are much bigger artists than Culture Club - Depeche Mode has many hits, which CC really only has the two. So we need to step it down even a little bit from those that I am saying we had in the past.
Def Leppard. I don't want to dive in to a whole hairband argument here, but I don't really give a damn about most of them coming. Poison, Whitesnake, KISS, Warrant, Motley Crue - none of those would really interest me. But Def Leppard rules. Although, I guess by my own rules above, they have way too many hits to be on the level of Culture Club.
Tears for Fears. A million percent. Let's do this. 3 hits, right? That is perfect for this slot.
Cyndi Lauper. I'm honestly shocked that she hasn't already done it, unless she is like dead or something. 3 hits and then some almost ones like the Goonies theme.
Speaking of which, Wham! would have been the perfect thing here, except for George Michael having passed on. Also, The Cars would have been SICK! Or INXS! Stupid death!
Hall & Oates! I'm actually shocked that they haven't already been on the poster, since they seem to have a good bit of hipster cachet in movies and TV shows.
The Bangles! One of them even lives in Austin! How has this not happened?
The Police would be amazing. I love that band. But I don't think they do reunions... and they are huge, not just a little two hit wonder. I was just thinking of 80's stuff.
Other random ones from my personal childhood jukebox of happiness: The Outfield, DEVO (I can do a full-on dance and lip-synch to "Whip It"), New Order, B-52's, Simple Minds, Crowded House. Lots more good ideas that would bring back some good nostalgia.
I don't think we would get much recognition or traction from a lot of the one-hit-wonder bands like Dead or Alive, The Buggles, Kajagoogoo, Thompson Twins, Flock of Seagulls, Men Without Hats, Glass Tiger, Psychedelic Furs (actually, maybe they would be legit?), etc.
OK, enough of that. This is the band with Boy George at the head of it. The name came from them having a gay Irish man, a black Briton, a blond Englishman, and a Jewish drummer in the band. From looking at their ten most popular songs, only three of them ring a bell. Two were huge hits, and then one more sounds familiar further down the list. We'll start with the mega hit. "Karma Chameleon" with 441.8 million streams.
Oh wow. Ye olde tyme slave trade is happening, but also a super weird guy with feathers in his hair and extreme eye makeup is there singing and making the slaves dance with the awkward hookers and soldiers and aristocrats. What in the hell does that video think it is getting at? And then a poker game! Ah, he's a cheat! Walk the plank! "I'll get you for this!!!" "Boy George once explained about the song: "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It's about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren't true, if you don't act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that's nature's way of paying you back." WTF does that even mean? If you don't act like you feel, then nature will get you back? Mmmmkay.
That track was from their second album, 1983's Colour by Numbers. Their first album had that track that seems familiar (I feel like it was on a movie soundtrack or something), "I'll Tumble 4 Ya," with 10.5 million streams.
I was going to say Wedding Singer, but it ends up that was actually in Billy Madison. What a weird movie. Fun song and fun video, but man the 80's were a weird time, right? But then that first album also had their second biggest hit, the excellent "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" with 109.4 million streams.
I frequently still sing this song to my family members in a voice that is a cross between Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs and Marilyn Monroe's happy birthday song. Never creepy at all. But the track is fantastic still - that little reggae riddim and his voice combine to maker something indelible.
After Karma blew up, I'm sure they thought their ticket was punched and it was nothing but huge albums, but 1984's Waking Up With The House on Fire does not appear to have been much of a hit. Next, because this is what people did back in the day, they went ahead and released a greatest hits album, in 1987, featuring all three of those tracks up above. Next, a collection of remixes in 1991. This feels sad. Is it sad? Why aren't they making new music here? 2002 was another Greatest Hits and collection of demos and outtakes. 2011 sees another, called Essential. 2012's was called All The Best. What went on during this period?
They were formed in 1981 with four dudes, and were considered part of the "New Romantic" scene. In the UK they amassed twelve top 40 hit singles, including two #1s with "Karma Chameleon" and "DO You Really Want to Hurt Me." Karma hit #1 in the US in 1984 as well. Wikipedia claims that "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. That song rings zero bells to me. Weird. But right about now (1984) this was the perfect thing for MTV - a flamboyantly designed pop group with some hits, which led to winning a Grammy for Best New Artist and some other awards. Right about now is when George was one of the stars in "Do They Know Its Christmas."
But with that third album, it was a commercial flop. Boy George claims that it was the result of the labels forcing them to put music together after they were exhausted from a huge world tour in 1983/1984. But also, George and the drummer, Jon Moss, had a romantic relationship at the time that had unraveled (with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides), which apparently led to George hitting the drugs even harder. By 1986, George was seriously addicted to heroin. Apparently there was a fourth album made during this time, but it is not even available on Spotify. Wikipedia says it performed terribly as news about the heroin addiction became widespread and he was arrested in 1986. The band broke up and George went solo. Since then they have done a handful of reunion attempts - Wikipedia lists 1989, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2011, and 2014-present - but that last one was apparently successful enough to create Life, a 2019 album of new songs. It is, unfortunately, not very good. George kind of sounds like an old Mavis Staples or if Seal was 98. The top track is "Let Somebody Love You," with 4.6 million streams.
Oh boy. Reggae, mon! That ain't it. I won't be there on Second Weekend Saturday anyway, but I might have run by to check out some of the classics.
One Liner: Local rapper and R&B crooner with the same name as kiddo Skywalker
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but I'll say R&B, hip hop, soul Home: Austin Poster Position: 28 Weekend Two Only. Saturday.
Thoughts: I remember his name from listening to local guy Deezie Brown, this dude appeared on some tracks with him, and so I expect that he is also a local. You know how else you might know this name? Jake Lloyd is the name of the dude who played kiddie Anakin Skywalker in the prequel movies. The kid who said all of those terrible lines, fell in love with Queen Amidala (sp?) when it was super inappropriate, and drove a mean podracer. Now he looks like he might murder people in his spare time. Oh, actually, now after reading about him that is not especially funny. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has been arrested and assaulted his mom and is in a psych facility. Man, that got dark. I might change my rapper name if I were this dude.
This guy is an alternative R&B guy from Austin who has in fact collaborated with Deezie Brown on at least one album - Geto Gala. He has also collaborated with other ACL artist Primo the Alien. But there really is very little I can find out on the Internet that describes who he is. He has two kids and works at a place called GRAV. He plays lots of shows around Austin. KUTX chose him as the artist of the month once.
Two albums - 2018's JLLP and 2019's MoonLit Mornings, and then singles and EPs after that. I definitely enjoy the ones that sound more like rap than those that are straight R&B. HIs voice is nice, but they just aren't that interesting as whole songs in the R&B vein. HIs most popular track by a bunch is "Cold Summer," a 2021 single. 122k streams.
woah, those things in his ears are really big! Funky little track, its good stuff. I like the decision to film him rapping in front of a backyard garden. What is up with that? I'll also give you his newest single, "Sweat." Only 6,718 streams so far.
Nice throw-backs to some other classic songs. I dig the funk in that song, although I wish it had a little more ooomph. Definitely sounds like it was recorded in his living room, and not a legit studio (although what the hell do I know?).
I won't be around on Saturday of Weekend Two, but this guy is talented enough to go catch it.
One Liner: Soul revival masterminds who will hurt you with their live show
Wikipedia Genre: Soul, gospel, folk rock, blues, rock, cowpunk, Americana, blue-eyed soul
Home: Denver
Poster Position: 2 Both Weekends. Friday.
Thoughts: I saw these dudes do a taping for the ACL television show, and it was just about one of the most fun shows I've ever seen. Read about my full review here. More energy than you'll know what to do with, and just absolutely a damn good time. The radio has been hammering "S.O.B." for a while, "I Need Never Get Old" was getting play, and "Shake" had been on rotation here in Austin for a bit as well. That first excellent album (2015's Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats) was all the rage for a while and got everyone hot and bothered for the soul revival. Before we get to newer stuff, I'm just going to hammer those tracks for you to enjoy. First, the original hit, "S.O.B.," which has 143.1 million streams.
The soulfulness of the tune, the humming intro, the breakdown jam, the recklessness of his voice, it just kicks ass. Video is kinda cool too. One of the best parts about these guys is that Rateliff had apparently been in music for years, but had just never been able to make it as a folky guy, but then hit on this retro soul sound and has exploded. I love that, dogged success by going to something tried and true and making it sound new again. Second offering is the one that they stepped to the stage with at the ACL taping, which just builds and rocks and requires some dancing. "I Need Never Get Old," which has 55.7 million streams.
"I know that some will say, it matters but little babe, ah but come on and mean it to me, I need it so bad." Classic sound. So much tight energy. You are going to love to see this one played live. Because of Spotify, I buy so few actual CDs anymore, but I went out and bought this one as soon as I saw them play. I needed the ability to listen even when in my ancient car. Such a great disc. "Howling at Nothing" ranks third in number of plays at right about 32.5 million, but I think I'd rather play "Wasting Time," which boasts some solid pedal steel. 21.8 million.
Nice little country lament. And because I just discovered this and enjoyed it immensely, here is one of those NPR Tiny Desk concerts that you can go enjoy.
Although the muted horns aren't nearly as pleasing as when those cats play without abandon and just flex, this is still cool. "Look it Here" sounds freaking so awesome (the second track). I respect the fact that they skipped S.O.B. and just played "Mellow Out" instead, which fits that space so much better. And that slightly sped up version is tight.
2016 saw them release A Little Something More From. This little EP has a few new tracks, a live version from their hit album, and some alternate versions. It's not nearly as raucous and fun as the full album, but it still works well. It matches up better with the mellow mood of "Wasting Time" or "Mellow Out." Which is just fine and dandy with me. I'll take it. Top track is the opener, called "Parlor." 8.4 million streams. More of the same, right? Swinging and fun. Next you get 2018's Tearing at the Seams. Gimme some mo. This album is a more chilled out vibe - none of these songs bring the raw thunder like "SOB" or "I Need Never Get Old." But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, you get sweet mellowed vibes like "Coolin' Out" and "Hey Mama" instead. Which each make me want to bite my lower lip and thrust my face forward repeatedly to the beat. "Intro" is a little more excited, but literally sounds like the song a band plays when they are opening up a concert and just getting the crowd hyped up before kicking into the real music. Doesn't hold a candle to the hype hits of the last album. The top track is one that attempts a little more of that excitement, but honestly still holds back a little bit on fully going for it - "You Worry Me." 72.5 million streams.
Things that rule in this song - the voice, the bassline, the subtle horns/sax that mimic the guitar, the lyrics, the soft lilt in the vocals during the breakdown about 2/3 of the way through the song. "Everybody wants the same thing..." Good tune, good album. Not great, but good enough for me to keep enjoying it for a while.
Before their final release, Rateliff did a solo album of his own, called And Its Still Alright, and I did not like it at all. I was excited to check this one out, but this is a pretty lifeless, uninteresting slog of an album. If you are expecting some of the rad, uptempo soul he does with the Night Sweats, you will be disappointed. The top streamer is the title track.
Nope!
Finally, you get 2021's The Future. I wish I was still in to this, but the schtick has worn thin for me now. The opening track sounds like a shambling Dylan tune, except Rateliff can sing (mostly, sometimes in this song he just hollers at the top of his lungs like he just got bit by a rat). The second track, "Survivor" has the most streams at 6.9 million (showing that the schtick has worn off with the wider public as well!). But nothing on here is memorable at all. Not like the best stuff from that first album.
That trainer kind of looks like the lady who played Wonder Woman back in the day. Not a bad song by any means, just kind of plodding during the verse and then a little too yell-y during the chorus. This will sound dumb, but it feels like they're trying to hard. Don't love it. I'll definitely let this album go - it will be a relief to remove it from the queue, as every time it pops up I feel resigned about having to do it again.
But I will say that I went to the new Moody Amphitheater a few months ago and caught this show for my third time to see them play live. Even though I didn't love that most recent release, the dudes still put on a hell of a fun show. Loads of energy to spare. But the ACL taping is still one of the coolest shows I can think of. My expectation here is that they will pretty much be the openers for The Chicks, so I'll either be doing Billy Strings or this show, depending on which is at the same stage as the Chicks.
Poster Position: Headliner! Both Weekends. Friday.
Thoughts: Huh. I thought for sure that she had already been to ACL in the past. I wonder who I am thinking of? Her top two songs on Spotify are not her own, just ones where she collaborated with Doja Cat or Kendrick Lamar. But both of those have over a billion streams, so her presence is not to be ignored.
Her real name is Solana Imani Rowe, and she's originally from St. Louis. Raised in New Jersey by an executive producer from CNN and an executive at AT&T, as a Muslim. But after the 9/11 attacks, she stopped wearing her hijab to stop the bullying in 7th grade. She went to a handful of colleges before dropping out of Delaware State University. She began making music in the early 2010s, taking her stage name "from the Supreme Alphabet, taking influence from rapper RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. The last two letters in her name stand for Zig-Zag and Allah, while the first letter S can mean either savior or sovereign."
I had not heard of the Supreme Alphabet. Let's dig in. Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet are tenets of the Five-Percent Nation and were created by Allah the Father. The Five-Percenters believe that ten percent of the people in the world are elites and their agents, who know the truth of existence and opt to keep eighty-five percent of the world in ignorance and under their controlling thumb; the remaining five percent are those who know the truth and are determined to enlighten the eighty-five percent. The Nation was formed by a dude named Clarence 13X in New York in the mid-60's, who renamed himself Allah the Father after he left the Nation of Islam. Most of the Wikipedia about this stuff sounds like insane people shit. But here is the explanation for the Supreme Alphabet: "The Supreme Alphabet is a system of interpreting text and finding deeper meaning from the NOI Lessons by assigning actual meanings to the letters of the Latin script. For example, the first letter, A, stands for Allah; the 12th letter, L, stands for Love, Hell, or Right; and the 13th letter, M, stands for Master. The Supreme Alphabet was developed by Allah the Father and Justice. The method by which letters were associated with certain values is unknown." Why in the hell would "L" stand for Love, Hell, or Right? How does that work? My name is hereby JUSTICE ALLAH SEE KING!
Anyway, what we are looking at here is R&B stuff. I'm honestly surprised that my 11 year old daughter is so hot to see this, I don't get anything special from the handful of most popular songs I've heard now. It is fine, but just more R&B stuff with a great voice. Her top track of her own (not where she is just the feature) is from 2017's Ctrl, "Love Galore" with Travis Scott. 602 million streams.
Yeah, I mean, she has a powerful voice that sounds great. But I'm not sure why the song is so popular, a very basic percussion beat from a Casio 2000 added to some woozy synth mashes. The lyrics are good. And R&B has never been my thing, but just nothing in here is all that exciting to me. Right when she started making music, she signed to Top Dawg, the label of Kendrick, ScHoolboy Q, SiR, and others. She released a bunch of EPs and singles there at first, before her big breakout with Ctrl in 2017 (which was partially a repurposed version of her EP called A). Ctrl got lots of critical love, being named the album of the year by Time and scoring an 86 on Metacritic (which collects all of the main critical reviews). She was nominated for four Grammys that year but did not win any of them. She is supposedly working on a second album, but as of now it is not available on Spotify, and she has tweeted (and deleted) that the album is ready but the label isn't releasing it for some reason.
So, I'll give you the most recent single to see what the new album might sound like if it can come out. "Good Days" came out in 2020. 581 million streams.
Dig the trippy video of her being a mushroom throwing spores. Again, the track is fine. Nothing terribly memorable in the music itself and her voice sounds great. This just isn't aimed at me.
I feel bad dismissing her so quickly, but with only one album and a genre that really doesn't do it for me, there isn't much else to get in to. I hope my kid loves the show!
One Liner: Surf rock like Best Coast listened to the Breeders
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, will call it mermaid rock Home: L.A. Poster Position: 21 (up from 23, three years ago! rocket up the charts!) Weekend One Only, Saturday.
Thoughts: They were last here in 2019, and I generally liked it, but I have to add something in here before I get to a re-hash of that old review. I swear their top song was from a movie. Something like Freaky Friday or Scott Pilgrim vs The World, where a woman sang it as a band of high school kids shredded behind her. YES! It was Freaky Friday! Just over 4 million streams.
Originally by an Australian band called Lash, but used a few times in the Lindsay Lohan movie with her sweet garage band. Nice!
But otherwise, this is a weird band. At first, I was going with a full-on Breeders comparison, but then they have a lot of surf guitar too, and now they are throwing some Cure guitars at me ("The Mess" - that one also makes me think of Moving Panoramas, or the guitar plus synths in "Burns2ash"), some punk freakout ("Sick Sad Motherfuck"), and Best Coast ("Don't Mean Jack"). I generally like it - I've stuck around listening to them all day when normally I would have given it a few runs through the catalog and moved on. No Wikipedia, and pretty limited other stuff on the web, but I can tell that they are from a place called La Mirada, California. Which is part of the greater LA area, so they are automatically obnoxious for making it seem as though they are from some other fancy place when they are really just from LA. Their website says that they released an early EP in 2013 and then a full length in 2014, and then "made a comeback" in June 2018. The 2014 album is definitely a looser, surf-rock-ish thing, almost as if Nirvana's Bleach was made into surf rock. There is also a dude singing on a bunch of these tracks (or at least that sounds like a dude), when the band appears to be just four ladies. So maybe they dropped him to the curb before their big comeback. This album's top track is "Our Love Will Always Remain" at 1.4 million streams.
Yeah, nice little track - nothing too groundbreaking or off the reservation, just some nice harmonies and strummed guitar. The top original track overall right now is off of their "new" album, 2018's The Dream and the Deception, a 19 song mess of a disc, and is confusingly called "Communicationissexy/Idkhowtocommunicate" 1.5 million streams.
This is where I was on the Breeders thing. And its another nice little rock and roll tune. I dig this stuff well enough to put them on my maybes list of tunes I'd go check out.
One Liner: Spanish language critical darling doing cumbia art-pop
Wikipedia Genre: Synthpop, Latin-American music, Art pop, Cumbia, Bullerengue Home: Toronto (by way of Columbia) Poster Position: 19 Both Weekends. Saturday.
Thoughts: I heard one of her albums a few years back because NPR named 2020's Miss Columbia as their #3 album of the year for 2020. Which is a little whack - the top song now has 6 million streams. I know that the best music doesn't necessarily get all of the streams (see Drake's dumb streaming counts), but at the same time you aren't the third best album of the year if people don't care to listen to you.
Her stage name is her real name, and she is Columbian/Canadian. She won the Polaris Prize (goes to the best full-length Canadian album each year) in 2017 for La Papessa. She was born in Columbia, but then immigrated to Canada. She is currently based in Toronto. Somehow, the Globe and Mail (a Canadian newspaper published in multiple cities) called her the future of Canadian rock and roll. This is very distinctly NOT rock and roll.
But maybe this is: "There was controversy surrounding her performance at the Halifax Pop Explosion music festival on October 19, 2017. Pimienta, as she often does during her concerts, invited the "brown girls to the front" and asked that white people move back. Some white audience members saw the request as racist, and a white volunteer photographer refused to move from her spot near the stage. When the photographer refused to move after repeated requests, Pimienta said, "you're cutting into my set time and you're disrespecting these women, and I don't have time for this". The photographer was removed from the show and the festival organizers later apologized to Pimienta, saying they would increase "anti-oppression and anti-racism training"." WTF man. If I was close to the stage, because I'd been saving my spot for the Chili Peppers all day and peeing in bottles and achieving peak heatstroke, I'd be annoyed if she made me move back for my skin color.
The top track is from Miss Columbia, and is called "Nada." I actually know what that means! 6.2 million streams.
Her voice is fantastic. I just wish I knew what she was talking about. Not feeling anything special on that track. But, her voice, and the steel drums, on "Te Queria" sound freaking amazing. Just a sweet vibe on that tune. All of her more recent releases have been with other people, so I'll go back to the old school to give you one of those old songs from the first album. This is "La Capacidad," with 538k streams.
Yeah, still a dope voice. Almost like a freaky Bjork thing going on there. But not my jam as far as the tunes go.
Wikipedia Genre: His Wikipedia fails to list a genre, but this is poppy rock
Home: California
Poster Position: 11 Weekend Two Only. Saturday.
Thoughts: This dude is kind of fun, despite myself. The one song of these that I already recognized was "Sheesh!," which is actually by Surfaces (who were at ACL last year), but features some bars by my man Tai. And it is a fun song, light and fluffy and relatively silly (like all of the best stuff from Surfaces), and that colors my thoughts of the rest of this dude's catalog. The best stuff is kinda fun.
His top song, by a TON, is "A-O-K," with 244.3 million streams.
See? Just kind of a sunny little track about being okay despite the messy circumstances of the world. He whistles in it! Something about him reminds me of that Travie McCoy guy from Gym Class Heroes.
His real name is Tyler Colon, and he grew up in California playing music. After high school, he ended up dropping out of Babson College, where he was on the basketball team, to go for music full-time. His first single popped off during the start of the pandemic lock down and was a big TikTok hit, as he was living on a friend's couch and working at a Verizon store. He auditioned for shows like The Voice and American Idol, but didn't make the cut. Instead he apparently did well (?) on a MTV dating show called Are You The One? I almost don't understand the Wikipedia page about that show.
Just one album - 2021's TV. The top single from that one is "Stuck in the Middle," with 111.5 million streams.
Another one that sounds sunny and bright, despite the maybe not so happy lyrics. The vibe is great. I won't be there for weekend two Saturday, but I might go check him out, I dig the whole sound that he has going with the sunny pop rock stuff.
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia. Home: Austin! Poster Position: 22 Both Weekends. Saturday.
Thoughts: Well, crap. I just spent all day listening to Disco Cowboy on Spotify, and only now do I realize that the spelling matters. Which is annoying because when I searched (with the "k") on Spotify, it brought me to the one with the "c," and even shows her as part of the ACL lineup in the upcoming shows section. WHICH IS A LIE!
But, I'll admit, that I kinda like Disco Cowboy. Kind of a Soccer Mommy vibe going on there, if a little less exciting.
Instead, this is something else that is maybe called vinyl ranch and maybe called Disko Cowboy, and either way, they do not have original music to listen to on Spotify. If you go to their Spotify profile, it is just playlists of other people's tunes, like SEX AND THE COUNTRY, with The Pointer Sisters followed by Bobby Gentry and Deana Carter. So, I guess this is just going to be a DJ set of kitschy music.
There is a photo on this website if you want to see a man in weird cowboy garb. https://www.diskocowboy.com/
One Liner: Remember Jamie Foxx's sweet solo music career?
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but R&B and rap and lite rock
Home: Baton Rouge-ish
Poster Position: 30 Weekend One Only. Friday.
Thoughts: Huh. Definitely thought we were looking at a kiddie rap group here. Instead, the first song is more like a soft-core Gary Clark Jr. cover. Odd. They are brothers from Baton Rouge, and their website makes the ridiculous claim of "Hard-hitting percussion and aural aggression meet a smooth sensibility and aesthetic in a way that has never been experienced." I don't think that is true at all. Thurman and Torrence Thomas have a split personality in their music between some rap, some rock, some R&B.
I thought that maybe they were from Austin because their top track is called "Montopolis Drive," with 6,426 streams, because Montopolis is a road over on the east side that calls back to a Reconstruction era community that is now part of Austin.
Pretty little ditty. Their voices sound great together. Although the song appears to have nothing to do with the road in east Austin. I also just heard a live version of the tune, and I can't say it was better than the studio version - they have a little trouble hitting the notes? We'll do one more, that was uploaded around the start of the year. This is "Ride," with zero recorded streams on Spotify.
More of a straight R&B tune. You know who they remind me of? About a million years ago, my sweet son was walking through Target with my wife and got it in his head that he should pick out a CD for me because he knew that I like music. The wife thought this was hilarious ( I was miffed that she wasted $15) but he picked out the Jamie Foxx album Best Night of My Life, which was relatively awful. And I had to be like "oooh, cooooool, thanks kiddo, what a sweet gift to me!" while my wife suppressed laughter. Jerk. Anyway, this kind of sounds like that. I don't need to go see it!
One Liner: Kiddie music with a Hawaiian and East Asian bent.
Wikipedia Genre: Kiddie
Home: Brooklyn
Poster Position: Not on the poster Weekend One Only. Friday.
Thoughts: Her website shows a pic of her holding a violin on the main page, but it seems like her most popular songs angle more towards the ukulele as the starring instrument. "Let It Come, Let It Go" has a jam band sort of vibe to it. "Sol Nal" and "Akatombo" have a Hawaiian vibe.
Very important sounding bio. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She double-majored at Northwestern University and then got a Masters at the New School in New York. It seems like she was on her way to becoming a crusader for good causes, but then started making music for all ages, and has been cruising with that ever since. She helped to launch OneBeat, "an annual global music diplomacy program that brings together musicians from around the globe to the U.S. each fall for one month of creative collaboration, performance and engagement with communities."
Two albums - 2012's Rabbit Days and Dumplings and 2020's Unhurried Journey. That first album has some songs not in English as well as a lot more of the East Asia feel. But her top track is from the newer album, "Underneath the Marshmallow Tree." 215k streams.
217 total views of that video. Kinda weird, right? I guess little kids don't YouTube their music as much as TikTok kiddies? Nice little tune though! The lyrics make me think of a jam band singing goofy lines for the dudes on drugs. "ramble through the breeze" ... "and the sound comes alive" - these are straight out of the String Cheese Incident songbook.
One Liner: Discofied pop rock Frenchies with that "Lizstomania" song
Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, pop rock, synth-pop, new wave Home: Versailles, France Poster Position: 2 Day: Friday Weekend Two Only.
Thoughts: They were last here in 2018, and before that they last played ACL in 2013. I ended up at that show standing next to a French guy I know from my neighborhood, while completely lost from my friend (because of cell service sucking in the park). And Alain (the French dude) was absolutely turned up to see Pheonix play, which made it even more fun for me, to be with a guy who was jumping and jamming. This was before I wrote about everything at ACL, so I don't have an old review from 2013 to lean on here. This band blew up in 2009, when their album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix became a hit based on the strength of two tracks. You're gonna get both of them here. First, is the better one, although I think the less overplayed one today, "1901." 250.0 million streams.
A little bit electronic, a little bit rock and roll, and very much a dance rock jam that calls on all of us to unite together and dance. Tune was certified as platinum, and this whole album won the Grammy for Alternative album in 2010. Then "Lisztomania," the second single from the album, likewise crushed the radio and has been streamed almost as many times (235.8 million).
Liszt was a Hungarian composer, although I'm still not sure what he has to do with this album. Huh. The term lisztomania has to do with the fact that fans would freak out for Liszt's shows back in the 1800s. I feel like I'm being trolled, but here is a key part of the Wikipedia entry:
Lisztomania was characterized by a hysterical reaction to Liszt and his concerts. Liszt's playing was reported to raise the mood of the audience to a level of mystical ecstasy. Admirers of Liszt would swarm over him, fighting over his handkerchiefs and gloves. Fans would wear his portrait on brooches and cameos. Women would try to get locks of his hair, and whenever he broke a piano string, admirers would try to obtain it in order to make a bracelet. Some female admirers would even carry glass phials into which they poured his coffee dregs. According to one report: Liszt once threw away an old cigar stump in the street under the watchful eyes of an infatuated lady-in-waiting, who reverently picked the offensive weed out of the gutter, had it encased in a locket and surrounded with the monogram "F.L." in diamonds, and went about her courtly duties unaware of the sickly odour it gave forth.
What in the shit is all of that about? I thought people in 1844 were super chill, just like relaxing on horsehair divans during concerts, sipping port and slowly dying of an abscess in their tooth. Had no clue they were the original freaky stans. Anyway, this album was all over the place back then, with appearances in Apple commercials and football games and everywhere in between. You can get a little more of them, in this old Tiny Desk that lets you get a taste of those two tracks in a stripped down mode.
I like them better in the original form, but pretty cool to hear them stripped down. Funny thing, they had three albums out before that mega hit even popped off. 2000's United, 2004's Alphabetical, and 2006's It's Never Been Like That. I don't know that any of those made it across the pond - none of the three of them have any chart presence at all in the US. Although, a tune from that first album is in their top threeon Spotify, and boasts 158.1 million streams, so I guess it isn't completely forgotten. "If I Ever Feel Better" is the track.
Those dudes look very French in that video. And its good to know that they were making funky dance rock back in the day as well. They owe a heavy debt to disco sounds in here, and those pop up later on in their catalog as well. Just before their 2013 time at ACL, they had released 2013's Bankrupt!, which spawned a few singles but nothing so world beating as the Wolfgang album. The lead hit song went for some Asian inspired strings to go with their disco rock party. "Entertainment," with 40.2 million streams.
And a freaking weird ass video though. What is up with all of that? it looks like they shot a video for their song, but if you also told me that they had just taken stock footage of Asian videos and re purposed them with that for us to see medieval, modern, and in-between Asian people doing stuff together, I'd buy that too. Samurai-turned-grey-turtleneck guy was definitely better than fake-flame-guy-turned-dead-security-guard guy though. And now people are going to think Phoenix are a Korean band fronted by a very pretty dude? I've missed the boat on this one, but whatever. And the song is fine. Not as good as the old stuff. Finally, a new album from 2017 (which is part of why I thought these guys would show back up at the Fest), called Ti Amo. I reviewed it a while back and was unimpressed. I've listened to it some more today, and I have come around a little bit. Its more sparkly disco rock stuff, made for dancing. The top track is the album opener, "J-Boy,' with 36.8 million streams.
Yeah, I like that more than I remembered. Good groove in there. The title track is also a good disco groove and rock chug. No new music since that 2017 album, but maybe a new album will land on us in a few weeks? I won't see these dudes this time, as I'll be over at The Chicks with the wife, but if they weren't up against that particular group, I'd likely go give it a shot again. These guys are fun.
One Liner: Every year's favorite western swing purveyors Wikipedia Genre: Ameripolitan, Texas country, western swing (Ameripolitan is a new one for me). Home: Austin, Texas Poster Position: 17
Weekend One Only.
Friday
Thoughts: You know these guys, or if you don't, then you have never been to the opening morning of ACL on weekend one, when these guys are more predicable than grass turned to hay by day 3 and no AT&T cell service by 3pm each day.They still just crank up the excellent western swing stuff like they always have, and everything is all good. Warms my heart that C3 continues to include them on the bill each year, despite the fact that attendance at their show probably wanes each year as more of the true Austinites at the festival die off and are replaced with 14 year olds vaping weed oil and asking where to find the EDM tent. If you actually don't know them, then know that they have won nine Grammy awards, have over 20 albums, and have charted more than 20 songs on the Billboard country charts, while keeping alive a very particular type of country sound that was best exemplified by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Ray Benson is the lead singer, and the 6 foot 7 dude is kind of a legend of the Austin music scene by now. They were voted the best country western band of 1977 by Rolling Stone, which is a weird award, but right on. They actually released a new album in 2021, which is a new and exciting wrinkle for these previews, as otherwise, each year has just been listening to "Hot Rod Lincoln" and "Miles and Miles of Texas" all over again and half-assing a preview. So, what do we have here? 2018 album called New Routes, which would make you think that they are gonna change up their style and make their long awaited EDM album or something, but nope. More western swing, country rock, soft country, and rockabilly packed into 11 songs. Some are covers ("Seven Nights to Rock," "Dublin Blues," "Willie Got There First.") but a lot are originals. And then 2021's Half a Hundred Years, which is yet again chock full of western swing and country - with a bunch of great guest spots like Lyle, George, Emmylou, Willie, and more. I wanted to hate on them re-making Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues," because that song is a damn masterwork, and on first blush I thought this one wasn't very good, but on repeat listening, I've decided that I will allow it. They also do a cool tune with the Avett Brothers, paying tribute to Willie's effect on the rest of us all. Good one. None of the songs from the 2018 album crack their top ten most popular - deservedly, most of those popular tunes are from the Bob Wills tribute Still the King (which is great) - and most of these tunes have been streamed less than 50k times, so I'll give you the most streamed, the one with the Avetts. "Willie Got There First," with 354k streams.
I could curl up and sleep in the voices of the Avetts. Just warm and cool and perfect. Good tune, acknowledging that he already did everything worth doing in country music. "I had such a good idea for a song! But Willie, he got there first." Of course, that is an Avetts song, so let's see about one of their new originals on this album - this is "Jack I'm Mellow," the album opener and with 128k streams.
Not only is that a fun little tune, but the video as advertisement for Willie's Reserve weed and the Luck Ranch outside of town are both a good time. Also cool to feature the violinist as the vocalist - maybe that had been happening in the past, but she (Katie Shore) appears to be a new addition to the band and she sounds great.
Go see, 'em, kids. They play the best renditions of Bob Wills tunes since the King himself.
Speaking of which, their most streamed track from the new album is a spot-on rendition of "Take Me Back to Tulsa," featuring, by God, Willie Nelson and George Strait. C'mon. 478k streams.
We are getting close and I am excited about seeing some of these bands! But after they released a few new artists - Big Boi! 6lack! Oakland Raiders quarterback DCarr! The Huston Tillotson University Jazz Collective! - I noticed that they appear to have dropped a few artists as well. Boooooooo!
Rag N Bone Man. Dang! I thought he was pretty cool. Reddit says that he cancelled his entire US Tour. Rude.
Jake Bugg. Actually kind of glad I don't have to suffer through the new stuff just to hear cuts from that first album. Don't see any reason for his cancellation.
Djo. Shoot! How can they take away the Stranger Things guy?!? That blows. On Insta, he shared a cryptic message saying that an unfortunate last minute scheduling conflict is causing him to miss. What is last minute? You've got a month and a half to get it fixed!
Lil Durk. A headliner! Gone! And I never heard a thing! (but I'm not mad about it, that guy was lame). Apparently at Lollapalooza he got hit in the face by two blasts of pyrotechnics and was later seen with a big bandage over his eye. he then announced that he was going to take a break and focus on his health.
Ibeyi. I can't recall at all who this was! So sad to see him/ her/ them go!
I am getting pretty close to being done with all of the reviews! 10 or 11 left! Let's go!
